As many meat lovers of decadent ultra marbled beef know, wagyu beef is a cattle breed that originates from Japan. What they may not know is that the wagyu we know today may trace it’s roots back over 35,000 years.
It wasn’t until the late 1800’s that Japan started consuming beef, it’s popularity led by the emperor of the time. Before then beef was rarely eaten and mostly used for physical work on farms.
In the 1970’s, Japanese wagyu breeds were brought to the US for the first time and bred with American Angus.
In 1988, the Japanese developed a meat grading system to designate A, B or C grades with a quality grade set from 1 to 5, formalizing a system to quantify the quality of wagyu beef.
Fast forward to the 1990s and after decades of crossbreeding Japanese cattle with foreign breeds, four main cattle breeds come out as the best.
Kuroge (Black), Aakage (Brown), Nihon Tankaku (Shorthorn) and Mukaku (Polled) breeds became what we know as Wagyu today. The highly marbled type typically comes from the Kuroge cattle.
During this time Australia began importing full-blood Japanese cattle. Some were original Japanese born, others were full-bloods born on American soil.
To protect their wagyu beef market and maintain the branding, Japan implemented a wagyu export ban in 1997 to keep wagyu a Japanese exclusive. However, as the breeds had already been introduced to the US, American bred cattle with wagyu blood already exists.
Today, you can find quality wagyu beef from Japan, Australia and the USA. The distinguishing feature is from the bloodlines. Japanese wagyu have a pure leanage, bred, fed, grown and processed in Japan. Whereas portions of the Australian and US breeds are crossbred with other cattle breeds.
The difference is typically in the marbling with Japan wagyu containing the most fat marbling and the US and Australian wagyu slightly less.
Beef connoisseurs will say the Japanese wagyu is slightly more tender and has a different taste profile.
Despite the differences between US wagyu, Australian Wagyu and Japanese Wagyu, they are all buttery, tender and delicious! Which is why we highly recommend that you try them all.
Windsor Quality Meats, Vancouver butchers since 1946, sources wagyu to Vancouver from all three countries so you can be sure to get a taste of this true delicacy like no other kind of meat in Vancouver.
